Foreword

More than perhaps for virtually any other mental illness, there is a need for a comprehensive and integrated approach to the management of bipolar disorders. The limited view that treatment of bipolar disorders consists only of finding the “right” pharmacotherapy has largely been dispelled. The availability of an array of medications proven to be beneficial in research trials has not changed the course of bipolar disorders as we encounter them in contemporary practice. Evidence suggests that this efficacy–effectiveness gap is a product, on the one hand, of the difficulty in getting bipolar patients to adhere to their medication treatment as prescribed and, on the other, a consequence of the greater prevalence of adverse psychological and social factors influencing the course of bipolar disorder in the heterogeneous populations treated in non-research clinical settings.